By Tawfiq Al- Ghussein
6 August 2025
Ownership of the Western Wall in Jerusalem was definitively adjudicated in December 1930 by an international Commission appointed by the British Government with the approval of the League of Nations.
Known in historical literature as the International Commission for the Wailing Wall, this body was composed entirely of eminent non-Arab, non-Muslim jurists: a former Swedish Foreign Minister as chair, the Vice-President of the Court of Justice at Geneva, the President of the Austrian–Romanian Mixed Arbitral Tribunal, and other senior legal figures. Its task was to resolve a dispute that had escalated into the violent disturbances of August 1929, known as the Buraq Uprising, following tensions over Jewish prayer arrangements at the Wall.
Under Ottoman and later British administration, Jews had been permitted to visit the Wall for silent prayer but without altering the physical environment. No furniture, partitions, or shofar-blowing were allowed, and these limitations were designed to preserve the Islamic waqf status of the site.
When, in the late 1920s, Jewish worshippers began to introduce physical structures and ceremonial elements, Muslim leaders feared these actions could evolve into a legal claim of ownership. This fear proved to be the underlying cause of the clashes that broke out in 1929 and prompted the British authorities to refer the matter to an international body.
The Commission arrived in Jerusalem on 19 June 1930, holding 23 sessions over the course of a month. It heard testimony from 52 witnesses—21 rabbis, 30 Muslim scholars, and one British official—and examined 61-one documentary submissions, 35 from the Jewish side and 26 from the Muslim side. It also conducted site inspections in and around the Wall.
On 1 Dec 1930, in Paris, the Commission issued its unanimous findings. The key conclusion was unequivocal:
“To the Moslems belong the sole ownership of, and the sole proprietary right to, the Western Wall, seeing that it forms an integral part of the Haram-esh-Sherif area, which is a Waqf property.”
The ruling further declared:
“To the Moslems there also belongs the ownership of the Pavement in front of the Wall and of the adjacent so-called Moghrabi (Moroccan) Quarter… made Waqf under Moslem Sharia Law…”
The Commission was explicit in stating that any Jewish religious items placed near the Wall “shall under no circumstances be considered as… establishing for them any sort of proprietary right to the Wall or to the adjacent Pavement.” Jewish access was acknowledged solely as a concession historically granted by Muslim authorities and subject to strict conditions: no seats, partitions, curtains, tents, inscriptions, or shofar-blowing were permitted, as these could imply proprietary claims.
To give binding legal force to the Commission’s recommendations, the British Mandatory Government enacted the Palestine (Western or Wailing Wall) Order in Council, 1931, which came into effect on 8 June 1931.
This Order affirmed Muslim ownership of both the Wall and the adjacent pavement, while guaranteeing Jewish access “for the purpose of prayer, under certain conditions.” It incorporated the Commission’s prohibitions on the introduction of furniture, religious paraphernalia, or any other installations liable to alter the physical or symbolic status quo. The Order also provided for penalties, including fines and imprisonment, for any breach of these regulations.
From a legal-historical standpoint, the 1930–1931 proceedings are remarkable for being among the very few instances in which an international tribunal adjudicated a dispute over a holy site in Jerusalem on the basis of documentary and testimonial evidence.
The Commission’s reasoning rested on a careful distinction between the right of access for religious purposes and proprietary ownership—a distinction it found in favour of the Islamic waqf. This position was then codified into the binding law of the Mandate.
Although political realities shifted drastically after 1967, when Israel assumed control over East Jerusalem, the Commission’s findings remain part of the historical and legal record. Preserved in the archives of the League of Nations and the United Nations, they stand as a rare moment in which an international legal process produced an authoritative settlement on a deeply contested site.
The unanimous conclusion—that the Western Wall and the adjoining prayer area are the property of the Muslim waqf—reflects a meticulous process of evidence-based adjudication. While these rulings have largely faded from public consciousness, their rediscovery serves as a reminder that in even the most sensitive of disputes, historical documentation and impartial judgment can yield a clear and enduring verdict.